A Creative Guide to Different Text Types

Writing is a complex skill that demands knowledge and understanding of different literary devices and text types. Besides grammar, punctuation, and spelling, students must understand the conventions and structures of many different text types and genres.

This article will walk you through the text type examples along with their purpose and features.

What Are the Main Text Types?

The wide range of reading and writing materials we may encounter in a single day can be categorized in many different ways. However, it’s helpful to divide them into two broad and all-encompassing categories, which are defined below:

Factual Texts

Factual texts are primarily used to inform, instruct, or persuade someone using facts, opinions, and statistics. These texts target an audience that doesn’t want emotional or entertaining content.

They want a quick overview of facts, so the text is not elaborated, and the language is typically succinct.

Literary Texts

Literary texts are metacognition, which are the thoughts, ideas, and reflections of a more general topic. These texts are targeted for entertainment or to provoke an emotional response by using language to create mental images.

These two major groups each contain a number of subcategories. Let’s now explore in detail a few of these text types.

Factual Text Type Examples With Sub-Categories

Following are some of the subcategories that fall under factual text types:

Discussion Text

The goal of discussion texts is to explore several viewpoints on a given topic to establish an informed opinion or make a decision. Discussion texts typically begin by providing background information on the issue before introducing the main point or areas of disagreement.

Explanatory Text

Explanatory texts look at causes and reasons instead of just giving simple descriptions. They go beyond simply recounting what happened and examine the why and how of what occurred. Explanatory texts typically begin with an overarching thesis statement that introduces the subject under investigation.

Procedural or Instructional Text

Instructional and procedural texts are used to outline the rules or processes that need to be followed. They frequently come with games, home goods, or recipes, among other things.

Procedural texts might seem similar to explanatory texts, but they serve different purposes. The main difference is that procedural texts advise you on how to do something, whereas explanatory texts describe something.

Persuasive Text

The goal of a persuasive text is to convince the reader to follow a particular course of action or accept a specific viewpoint. Persuasive texts begin with an opening statement, or thesis statement, that summarizes the perspective that will be conveyed in the text.

Non-Chronological Report

Non-chronological reports provide information and detail about an event without being restricted to giving a linear narrative.

The report often groups material by category and proceeds from a general introductory statement on the issue to thorough and particular information.

Recount

Recount texts primarily focus on retelling the events and are usually aimed at informing or entertaining. It often opens with the setting of a scene or other elements that establish context. They begin by describing the events that took place, usually in chronological order.

Literary Text Type Examples With Subcategories

Following are some of the subcategories that fall under literary text types:

Poetry

Poetry can be written to entertain, share knowledge, amuse, inform, pass on culture, and more. Poetry is generally structured around rhyme schemes, rhythmical patterns, grammatical patterns, and line lengths.

Narrative

Narrative writings are written to tell a story. Although there are many different kinds of narrative texts, they all generally start by establishing the scene and introducing the main characters. Then a complication is added, acting as the catalyst for the subsequent occurrences.

Drama

Drama is mainly intended to entertain through storytelling, much like narrative texts. It can also be used to share culture, amuse, inform, and provide social commentary. Drama differs from prose narrative in that it makes considerable use of dialogue and stage directions.

Conclusion

This article is a simple guide to help students learn about the different text types. The different text type examples will help students better comprehend the concepts behind each type and their key features. This guide serves as a handbook for a more thorough understanding of text types.